The 18-story tower, called Bliss, would have 30 ritzy condos selling for between $800,000 and $1.3 million, with sweeping views of the bayfront and walls of floor-to-ceiling glass, developers announced Friday.

The tower's development heralds a return to opulence for a condo market known mostly for its spectacular crash.

The slender tower planned would stand out for its modish Miami-styled touches, such as a parking garage with a $500,000 pair of car elevators. On the tower's exterior, a lightning-bolt-shaped "green wall" of plants would zag 200 feet into the sky.

The tower at 176 Fourth Ave. NE would loom over the former gallery of landscape painter P. Buckley Moss, the buzzy Birchwood hotel and waterfront North Straub Park. But it would pose a thin shadow. Mesh Architecture principal Tim Clemmons said its design has the most slender footprint of any high-rise downtown.

"It's an ultrathin building," said Dave Traynor, a vice president of Smith & Associates, the brokerage handling sales. "It's going to make you feel like you're floating in the air over Beach Drive."

Developers said they will submit plans to the city next week for review. They also said they will begin signing contracts for purchase next week, requiring buyers pay 35 percent down.

The tower's developer, Brian Taub, is known for leading work on the nine-story Utopia and seven-story Finale towers among the condo canyons of Clearwater Beach's Sand Key.

It would likely take two years to build Bliss. Construction on nearby condos is under way. Crews are working on 20 luxury condos at Rowland Place, a six-story Beaux-Arts-style complex at 146 Fourth Ave. NE.

Drew Harwell can be reached at (727) 893-8252 or dharwell@tampabay.com.

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